Edgewood To Study Tax Rate, Priorities

EDGEWOOD — City officials will have a special meeting Monday night to decide whether to raise property taxes and determine where the city will place its priorities in the budget for fiscal 1986-87.

Council members had planned Tuesday night to recommend a property tax rate after reviewing anticipated revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

However, the council could not agree on several issues, including how the city will make up a nearly $10,000 difference between estimated revenues and expenses. Also at issue are pay raises for city employees and the purchase of a police car.

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Also during the meeting, the council members will review development plans for the Lake Jessamine subdivision in west Edgewood and the Mary Jess Commerce Center.

Officials estimated $428,292 in revenue for next fiscal year, including $144,000 in property taxes collected at 2.74 mills. A mill is $1 tax for every $1,000 of taxable property value. Property taxes are the city's largest source of revenue.

Estimated expenditures for fiscal 1986-87 totaled $438,256, making the city $9,964 short of a balanced budget.

One solution to the deficit would be to increase the millage, which at 2.74 mills is the same as last year. Raising the millage to 3.0 or higher would eliminate the shortfall, but some city council members are skeptical about raising property taxes in the city of slightly more than 1,000 residents.

Edgewood has reduced the millage for the past two years although it has collected the same or more in property taxes because of new construction.

The decreased property tax rate has resulted in lower taxes for some property owners but has contributed to the revenue shortage because less property tax money is coming in during the current fiscal year than anticipated.

The loss of federal revenue-sharing funds, which have dwindled for the past two years, also was a cause of the revenue shortage.

Officials are considering proposing the higher millage to meet the July 30 deadline to submit a tax rate to the county property appraiser. The council then would lower the millage as necessary during public budget hearings tentatively scheduled for Sept. 2 and 16.

Council member John Pancari said he would support a tax increase if the budget included pay raises for the city clerk and seven police officers. Pancari said he would prefer the city use $10,000 proposed for a police car to give salary increases to eight city workers.

The budget proposal already includes a $6,000 allocation for raises for the seven officers. With an average salary of $15,500, the pay raise for each officer would be about $465, or 3 percent.

Police Chief Gerald Brewer said the department could go another year without a new car. He said he too would rather the city spend they money on higher police salaries.

Mayor Dorris Bobber recommended the purchase of a new car to replace the oldest of the fleet of four. The cars are 1 to 5 years old and Bobber said she does not want to risk a breakdown during an emergency.

The spending plan does not include a raise for the city clerk, who is expected to receive $19,003 next year, the same as this fiscal year.

Bobber said she had planned to use an extra $8,000 collected by police for traffic fines to give all city employees a one-time bonus. She said, however, that the additional money may have to be used to make up the revenue shortfall.

In other action Tuesday, the council adopted on first reading an ordinance annexing a vacant Orange County lot just outside the city's southeastern limits. Owners of the property plan to build an professional office building. The second and final reading of that annexation ordinance is set for Aug. 5.